Utilization of farm animal genetic resources in a changing agro-ecological environment in the Nordic countries

Abstract

Livestock production is the most important component of northern European agriculture and contributes to and will be affected by climate change. Nevertheless, the role of farm animal genetic resources in the adaptation to new agro-ecological conditions and mitigation of animal production’s effects on climate change has been inadequately discussed despite there being several important associations between animal genetic resources and climate change issues. The sustainability of animal production systems and future food security require access to a wide diversity of animal genetic resources. There are several genetic questions that should be considered in strategies promoting adaptation to climate change and mitigation of environmental effects of livestock production. For example, it may become important to choose among breeds and even among farm animal species according to their suitability to a future with altered production systems. Some animals with useful phenotypes and genotypes may be more useful than others in the changing environment. Robust animal breeds with the potential to adapt to new agro-ecological conditions and tolerate new diseases will be needed. The key issue in mitigation of harmful greenhouse gas effects induced by livestock production is the reduction of methane (CH4) emissions from ruminants. There are differences in CH4 emissions among breeds and among individual animals within breeds that suggest a potential for improvement in the trait through genetic selection. Characterization of breeds and individuals with modern genomic tools should be applied to identify breeds that have genetically adapted to marginal conditions and to get critical information for breeding and conservation programs for farm animal genetic resources. We conclude that phenotyping and genomic technologies and adoption of new breeding approaches, such as genomic selection introgression, will promote breeding for useful characters in livestock species.

Molecular identification of livestock breeds: a tool for modern conservation biology

“…In the past two or more decades, climate change has emerged as a higher-level driving force for reduction in AnGR (Nardone, Ronchi, Lacetera et al, 2010;Thornton, van de Steeg, Notenbaert et al, 2009). Many reports have described the expected impact of climate change on livestock production systems and diversity (Banik et al, 2015;Herrero et al, 2009;Hoffmann, 2010;Kantanen, Løvendahl, Strandberg et al, 2015;McMichael, Powles, Butler et al, 2007;Naskar et al, 2015). This is mainly because of the direct and indirect implication of climate change on both the frequencies and intensities of most of the causative factors for genetic erosion mentioned previously .…”

Is Continued Genetic Improvement of Livestock Sustainable?

“…Consequently, although useful genes for traits of poultry likely lurk in the jungle or the fancier's backyard, identifying them is difficult, and only if their effect is sufficiently large, for example, for specific disease resistance, to compensate for deleterious effects on other traits are they potentially useful, although modern molecular methods may enable introgression without reduced linkage drag (Kantanen et al 2015). Indeed, methods for more rapid introgression using genome editing have been suggested recently as a way of incorporating many identified genes via transformed sires without backcrossing (Jenko et al 2015).…”

Livestock Under Climate Change: A Systematic Review of Impacts and Adaptation

“…Monogastric animals' health is more susceptible to climate change and productivity is even more affected than that of ruminants [26]. Furthermore, pigs and poultry have lower environmental impacts than ruminants, and local chicken and pig breeds have an increased potential in the future because of their unique characteristics in adapting to climate change [85]. Ruminants are crucial in pastoral and subsistence production as a main source of food in areas that cannot sustain crop production due to long period of droughts and water scarcity (e.g., [52]).…”